In a face-to-face meeting with the president, an angry Andrew Pollack had a single demand Wednesday: Make our kids safe. “It’s simple,” he said. No parent should ever have to send a kid to school wondering whether the child will come home, Pollack said. P
Spilling out wrenching tales of lost lives and stolen security, students with quavering voices and parents shaking with anger appealed to President Donald Trump on Wednesday to set politics aside and protect American schoolchildren from the scourge of gun violence.
An angry Andrew Pollack had a single demand: Make our kids safe.
“It’s simple,” he said. No parent should ever have to send a child to school wondering whether the kid will come home, Pollack said. His daughter Meadow was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
“It should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it, and I’m pissed. Because my daughter, I’m not going to see again,” said Pollack. “King David Cemetery, that is where I go to see my kid now.”
Trump listened intently as raw emotions reverberated at the White House and pledged action: “We don’t want others to go through the kind of pain you’ve been through.”
He was faced with grieving families looking for answers. Few had concrete suggestions, but a few spoke in favor of raising age limits for buying assault weapons.
Parkland student Samuel Zeif said he’s heard of 15-year-olds buying rifles. Cary Gruber, father of a Parkland student, implored Trump: “It’s not left and right,” adding: “if you can’t buy a beer, shouldn’t be able to buy a gun.”
Trump solicited suggestions from the group. He promised to be “very strong on background checks,” adding that “we’re going to do plenty of other things.” He also indicated interest in the idea of concealed weapons for trained teachers, saying it was something his administration would be “looking at it very strongly.”
A strong supporter of gun rights, Trump has nonetheless indicated in recent days that he is willing to consider ideas not in keeping with National Rifle Association orthodoxy, including age restrictions for buying assault-type weapons. Still, gun owners are a key part of his base of supporters.
Over 40 people assembled in the State Dining Room. Among the group were six students from Parkland, including the student body president, along with their parents. Also present were Darrell and Sandra Scott, whose daughter was killed in the Columbine, Colo., shooting, and Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden, who lost children in Sandy Hook, Conn. Students and parents from the Washington area also were present.
The student body president at Stoneman Douglas, Julia Cordover, tearfully told Trump that she “was lucky enough to come home from school.”
She added: “I am confident you will do the right thing.”
Not all the students impacted by the shooting came to the White House.
David Hogg, who has been one of the students actively calling for gun control was invited but declined, said his mother Rebecca Boldrick.
“His point was [Trump needs] to come to Parkland, we’re not going there,” she said.
Television personality Geraldo Rivera had dinner with Trump at his private Palm Beach club over the weekend and described Trump as “deeply affected” by his visit Friday with Parkland survivors. In an email, Rivera said he and Trump discussed the idea of raising the minimum age to purchase assault-type weapons.
Trump “suggested strongly that he was going to act to strengthen background checks,” Rivera said.
The NRA did not respond to a request for comment. Trump embraced gun rights on his campaign, though he supported some gun control before he became a candidate, backing an assault weapons ban and a longer waiting period to purchase a gun in a 2000 book.